Friday, October 05, 2007

Latvian political scandals getting stranger every week...

Two weeks ago, Indulis Emsis resigned as the Speaker of the Latvian parliament, opening the way for a completely unknown person named Viesturs Daudze. We are now learning more about the scandal that lead to Emsis' resignation and it gets more and more bizarre...

As most Latvians know by now, the story started in October 2006 when Emsis got his briefcase stolen in the parliament building. According to Emsis, he had 10,000 US dollars in cash in that briefcase. The investigators found out that the briefcase was stolen by a waiter from the parliament cafe. But, instead of 10,000 dollars, they recovered only 6,000.

Emsis changes his testimony and says that he only had 6,000 dollars in the briefcase. (He now claims that he did that so the case would get to the court more quickly - and he could at least get 6,000 of his dollars back more quickly.) Prosecutor's office is not happy about him giving contradictory testimony. They conclude Emsis has lied under oath at least once and start a criminal investigation against him - for perjury. Emsis resigns.

It all sounds strange to me. A major politician changing testimony just to get 6,000 dollars back a few months early? Prosecutor's office prosecuting someone for what looks like a minor change in what they said? (Or is there something else that Emsis is not saying?) This scandal (and other things that are happening in Latvia right now) is leaving me more and more puzzled...

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